The present invention generally relates to seals, gaskets and the like, and more particularly to a seal or gasket to retain or seal toner in a printer toner cartridge or the like.
In the imaging industry, there is a growing market for the remanufacture and refurbishing of various types of replaceable imaging cartridges such as toner cartridges, drum cartridges, inkjet cartridges, and the like. These imaging cartridges are used in imaging devices such as laser printers, xerographic copiers, inkjet printers, facsimile machines and the like, for example. Imaging cartridges, once spent, are unusable for their originally intended purpose. Without a refurbishing process these cartridges would simply be discarded, even though the cartridge itself may still have potential life. As a result, techniques have been developed specifically to address this issue. These processes may entail, for example, the disassembly of the various structures of the cartridge, replacing toner or ink, cleaning, adjusting or replacing any worn components and reassembling the imaging cartridge.
Imaging cartridges include one or more compartments holding the marking material which is deposited on a surface, such as paper. For a laser toner cartridge, this compartment is referred to as the toner hopper. During the remanufacture of a laser toner cartridge, any remaining residual toner should be removed from the toner hopper and the toner hopper should be cleaned. New toner is then placed in the toner hopper and the hopper opening is then sealed with a toner hopper seal. The purpose of the toner hopper seal is to ensure that toner does not migrate from the toner hopper during shipping of the toner cartridge package. Being a fine, dry powder, toner will migrate throughout the package and may damage other components of the toner cartridge. Such toner migration will also create an esthetically unpleasing mess for the end user. If the toner is not confined to the toner hopper, the end users may have toner on their hands and clothes.
Some types of toner cartridges, such as the HP 1320, for example, have a toner hopper opening which is not readily accessible due to the developer roller portion of the toner cartridge not being removable from the toner hopper. To seal such a toner hopper, the toner hopper seal must be inserted through slot, or sealing channel, in the side to the toner cartridge to place the seal over the toner hopper opening and between the toner hopper and the developer roller portion of the toner cartridge. In order to insert a seal into such a slot, an insertion tool may be used to force and guide the seal through the sealing channel between the toner hopper and the developer roller portion. It would be advantageous to provide a seal assembly which allows a seal to be inserted into the sealing channel without the need for a separate insertion tool.